Celestia's Nightmare CHAPTER 2
by ScarlettScribe
Summary: Luna's suspicions about her sister grow as she notices a change in Celestia's behaviour towards other ponies, plus ponies have started disappearing during the night. Luna must discover who is stealing her subjects, what the strange herb in The Everfree Forest is and whether all of these events are somehow connected to Celestia's dream.


Celestia's Nightmare

**Chapter 2**

"What do you _mean _you can't find it?" Princess Celestia sneered impatiently, "I told you that I needed it by tonight! You're so incompetent; do I need to make you resit training or something?"

"Uh, no ma'am. Sorry ma'am," the trembling guard replied, "I just couldn't find it; The Everfree Forest is a large area, ma'am, especially for just one pony to cover..."

"Do you doubt my orders?" Celestia growled,

"No! No, of course not, ma'am," the guard quickly said, "I will find it for you, The Royal Guards won't let you down,"

"No," Celestia grumbled angrily, "you better not,"

"But may I suggest, by your consent, that you consider having more than one pony look for this herb?" the guard asked, "if you need it so urgently, that is,"

"**No! And don't you dare say what it is," **Celestia roared in rage, **"I entrusted **_**you**_** with this information and you alone, I did not do that simply for other ponies to find out about it, whether it is to go and help you locate it or to hear you mention it, do you understand?"**

The yell was so shocking and ear-splitting that it made the pony behind the marble column, who had watched the whole ordeal, gasp in surprise. Princess Celestia turned her head towards the slight sound like a bat, she said in a low but powerful tone "who's there?"

The pony was still frozen, although she knew that it was half ridiculous: maybe she had gotten the wrong end of the stick and the whole discussion she had just heard was a mistake?

"Come out, or I will break that column apart!" Celestia shouted aggressively, but then she noticed a wisp of an electric blue shimmery mane peeking out from the sides of the column. Celestia cursed under her breath and then called out uncertainly "Luna?"

A cautious Luna stepped out from behind the safety of the marble column and into the open view of her sister, "sorry," she said quietly, "I didn't mean to eavesdrop, it's just that I was passing through and I thought that it would be rude to intrude so...I guess I just stayed put."

Celestia smiled, approaching her younger sibling, and nuzzled her cheek softly. "Don't be silly, it was fine. You've always been such an anxious foal," she replied in a voice like silk, "I was just instructing this charming guard to go seek something out." Celestia looked at Luna with a face of utter seriousness and concern, "to seek something out that I need to urgently talk to you about, dear sister," she said.

The two sisters sat down in a large room which was decorated with beautiful tapestries, the tapestries showed pictures of both the sun and moon, thus representing the two princesses of Equestria. They were in the conference room, which was a room where great issues were discussed and sorted, issues that could shape the way Equestria was forever.

"Sister, I am afraid a terrible crime has befallen our great land," Celestia told Luna, "A number of ponies have been reported missing. Somepony, or something, is ponynapping our subjects,"

"Th-that's terrible!" Luna gasped in shock, "how long has this been happening for? And how many are missing? Of course you've launched an investigation already, but we must help them more! I say that we personally look for them, they are our subjects, as well as make announcements every day! Maybe every few hours of the day, just to be safe,"

"Luna, calm down, too much motivation can sometimes lead to recklessness," Celestia replied, "to answer your questions; this has been happening for a few weeks now. I didn't say anything to you because I didn't want to worry you and I thought the guards would be able to quickly catch this villain...but I was too quick to judge the situation. This is now out of hoof; nine ponies have already been ponynapped and I can't allow any more to be taken. I need your help now, Luna,"

Luna was more than happy to help, but she felt a strange mix of other emotions too; anger at this crook and anger that she had not been told about this ponynapping earlier, ashamed that she had not been able to protect her kingdom as a ruler should, upset that Celestia hadn't felt need for her help until now and confusion still about the conversation between her sister and the guard.

"What herb did you send that guard to go find?" Luna asked after a while,

"B-but Luna, this is a serious problem we have in our hooves! It must be resolved now, it cannot wait, especially not for tedious irrelevant questions," Celestia insisted. But Luna wasn't willing to side pass this question; she stared at her sister suspiciously and angrily, like a pony scolding her young filly.

"Celestia, what herb did you send that guard to go find?" Luna repeated, "I want to know, you're not the only princess and I must have my inclusion. Now tell me,"

Celestia sighed and looked down, "I'm sorry, Luna. I just didn't want to worry you even more, I know you take your duties very seriously and it can upset you when things like this happen," she admitted, "I thought I could handle this issue on my own. But when I realised that I couldn't, I researched records about possible ponies that could pull this type of thing off. I found something about a 'pony of shadows' but also about a mythical herb that is used to recover lost things. I thought it could help, that's all, so I sent a guard to go find it,"

_Hm, _Luna thought, _that's a perfectly acceptable excuse. So why did Tia want to initially hide this fact? She probably was genuinely worried about me, but I can't help doubting her since that dream. Either it's my imagination or Celestia has been acting weird lately..._

"Ok," Luna replied, "I understand that, but why did you tell him to go alone? You seemed pretty mad..."

"You know how dangerous The Everfree Forest can be, I wanted as little amount of ponies in that dangerous place as possible," Celestia answered calmly, "I know that it would be quicker to find the herb with more ponies looking for it but I couldn't bring myself to put anymore ponies in that position than I had to,"

"Right," Luna mumbled, "yeah, that makes sense,"

"Are you upset about me keeping these things from you?" Celestia asked, "i know our relationship has been kind of...tense. Since that accidental dream and things..."

"Yes, i feel the same way," Luna replied, subconsciously with a tint of harshness from remembering the what-should-be-nightmare, "but please don't keep things from me any more, sister. I have a right to know, just like you,"

"If that's how you truly feel then i suppose there is one more thing about this ponynapping I must report to you," Celestia said, stepping forward, "i'm sorry Luna, but all nine of the missing ponies so far have been taken during nightfall."

What? No. That was impossible. Luna knew that her sister was lying now; that would never happen, not under her watchful eye and beautiful night that she worked so hard to perfect. Luna guarded her subjects during the night so that no harm would come to them, she would have seen any kind of disturbances in her quiet night. She cared for her ponies too much to let this happen!

"No, sister, this can't be true," Luna whispered, tears welling in her eyes, "I work so hard to keep them safe,"

"I know, Luna," Celestia replied softly, holding Luna tightly and letting her sob into her mane, "I know you do, these things happen. Just, keep an eye out for anything in the night, ok?"

"Of course," Luna sniffled, "I won't allow this to happen ever again. I'm sorry."

That night, Luna refused to have any guards check on her, food brought to her or any other kinds of distractions at all. She had to protect her ponies, it was her duty and she had been unknowingly failing.

The moon and stars were out and shining bright, the crisp night air kept Luna on the tips of her hooves. It was hard for her not to smile as she felt the night around her, she realised that it may seem vain but it was like having a wonderful masterpiece that she had created surrounding her in beauty. Equestria was quiet; ponies were peacefully asleep, the woodland creatures were burrowed down with their families and not even the trees dared to make a noise as the wind brushed against them.

Then suddenly there was movement. A tiny speck of darkness shifted silently around a corner, so slowly that Luna wondered if it were her eyes playing tricks on her. But no, she had definitely seen it, she was sure of it. So she made a quiet descent so not to alert the shadow that she was there.

She pressed herself up against a wall of a building, trying to quieten her loud heavy breathing, and peeped around the corner; the shadow, which she could now see was a pony in a cloak, quickly scoped the surroundings before heading south-east in a fast canter. Luna floated upwards and silently flew above the mysterious figure, following him/her.

Luna's sharp eyes were never torn away from the shadowy figure even though he/she ran and she flew for hours (Luna was worried that it would be time to lower the moon before this pony eventually arrived at its destination that possibly didn't even exist).

As if by reading the princess's mind, suddenly the pony stopped. Luna came to an abrupt halt in the air and took a second to take in her surroundings: the edge of The Everfree Forest.

The only pony from Canterlot that had any business in The Everfree Forest was the one guard that Celestia ordered to visit, and she was sure that he had been the day before. And even if he hadn't, what business did he have going there at night?

As the mystery pony walked into the forest, Luna looked back towards Canterlot; dawn would have to wait a while longer. And she followed the steed into the dark Everfree Forest.


End file.
